THE men met in a room at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta. The Hok Bing, an unknown businessman, Muhammad Rizki Pratama, son of the then President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and Samingoen, director of a workers pension fund, were finalizing details of a collaboration on a mega-development project.

The date was July 2002. In the cool of the air-conditioned room, Bing began by announcing that he had been entrusted by the State Secretariat to operate t